James Ladyman (University of Bristol)
Not all of physics is fundamental physics. Optics, condensed matter physics and geophysics are all special sciences. Fundamental physics is often associated with the physics of smallest parts of matter and hence with high energies since they are required to break matter apart. However, high energies are also associated with general relativity and cosmology both of which are concerned with the very large. Thermodynamics seems to be universal so should it too be regarded as fundamental? This paper argues that while metaphysicians often think of fundamentality as a property, as in the fundamental level, in physics it is often a relation, as in theory X is more fundamental than theory Y. It also argues that fundamental often pertains to universality, and that this is the right way to understand fundamentality in physics, though it is related to the idea of the smallest components of matter
